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By LINDSEY TANNER | The Associated Press
Gun injuries, including many of these, are estimated at 75,000 U.S. children and teens to more than $ 3 billion, a first-of-its-kind study found.
Researchers called it the first nationally representative study on ER visits for gun injuries among U.S. kids. They found that more than one-third of the wounded children were hospitalized and 6 percent died. Injuries declined during most of the 2006-14 study, but there was an upswing in the final year.
The researchers found that 11 of every 100,000 children and teens treated in U.S. emergency rooms have gun-related injuries. That amounts to about 8,300 kids each year.
The scope of the problem is however; It does not hurt to be patient, but it does not include costs for patients after they're feeling home.
"Dr. Faiz Gani, the lead author and researcher at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, said:" We do not know what we need to do in this world.
The study is an analysis of estimates by the United States Government Agency on Healthcare Research and Quality.
The researchers focused on victims under age 18; the average age was about 15.
Almost half of the injuries were nearly 40 percent unintentional and 2 percent were suicides. There were five times more visits for boys than for girls.
Pediatric ER visits for gun injuries fell from a rate of 15 per 100,000 in 2006 to about 7 per 100,000 in 2013, then jumped to 10 per 100,000 in 2014, the most recent data.
University funding for the analysis, published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics.
The findings highlight that gun violence involving kids goes beyond mass shotings that gain the most attention, said Dr. Robert Sege, co-author of an American Academy of Pediatrics Gun injury policy.
"It's extraordinarily sad because these children grow up in their minds and they affect their ability to feel safe and comfortable at home or in school. It's an enormous ripple effect on child development, "said Sege, a Tufts University professor of medicine who was not involved in the research.
Press release from the gun lobby, Dr. Denise Dowd, an ER physician at Children's Mercy hospital in Kansas City.
"It's really important that we have an idea of the magnitude of life we are spending so we can prioritize it as a national health concern."
But she said much more needs to be known for prevention.
"We need national surveillance systems just like we do with motor vehicle deaths, to track these injuries and figure out the circumstances," she said.
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The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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